SSD vs Velociraptor

[Briarknit]

I am currently using the velociraptor hard drive (250GB), and i was wondering what kind of an upgrade in load times I would see if I upgraded to the latest SSD that is available. I was thinking an 80gb one just for wow and a few other games. Any suggestions?

[Ualaa]

The Intel generation 2 devices have the best read times, so they'll be the best for warcraft.

I went with a Patriot Torqx SSD, which was one of the better low-mid range drives. It came with a 10-year warranty, while all other competitors seem to be offering 2 years.

In my case the SSD is about twice as fast on sequential reads as my Raptor, but the seek/access time blows the Raptor away. In game, I've noticed load times are a quarter what they were, or probably less then that.

[Briarknit]

Originally Posted by Ualaa

The Intel generation 2 devices have the best read times, so they'll be the best for warcraft.

I went with a Patriot Torqx SSD, which was one of the better low-mid range drives. It came with a 10-year warranty, while all other competitors seem to be offering 2 years.

In my case the SSD is about twice as fast on sequential reads as my Raptor, but the seek/access time blows the Raptor away. In game, I've noticed load times are a quarter what they were, or probably less then that.

What's the difference between sequential access and seek/access time?

[Ualaa]

Sequential read, is reading a file which is all in one place.

Seek/Access time, is finding the file on your drive to start to read it.

[Briarknit]

So the ssd finds wow a lot faster, but once it does it loads it twice as fast as the raptor?

[Ualaa]

WoW in general, whatever specific file you are searching for in particular.

Here's a good read on SSD's, with benchmarks including Raptor drives (which are the best platter drives, for speed).

AnandTech: The SSD Relapse: Understanding and Choosing the Best SSD

[Briarknit]

Originally Posted by Ualaa

WoW in general, whatever specific file you are searching for in particular.

Here's a good read on SSD's, with benchmarks including Raptor drives (which are the best platter drives, for speed).

AnandTech: The SSD Relapse: Understanding and Choosing the Best SSD

Ah ok ill be sure to read up on that. And just to be clear, I can use the small 2.5" in my tower right? They arent specifically for laptops correct?

[Ualaa]

There are adaption kits, where you mount your 2.5" device into a 3.5" device, which then fits into a hard drive bay.

Mine came with a mounting piece, but the screws did not line up entirely. I could use four of the four screws to attach the drive to the mounting piece, but only two of the four screws on that lined up with my case. I just did the two screws and said good enough.

But honestly, SSD's run cool and basically don't have moving parts. You could velcro it to the bottom of your case and it would be just fine.

[Briarknit]

cool thanks. When installing 5 wow's on a SSD, should I just install 5 whole copies (10gb each) or do something special to where I can use less space but still have 5 different wows?

[Ualaa]

If your software offers virtual config files, you'll just want the one install. Nothing is gained from multiple installs, aside from different settings.

Most of the software options for boxing don't offer virtual config files. In this case, you have a couple of options.

A) Go with one install per warcraft.

B) Go with one install per warcraft, but use Symbolic Links.





Symbolic Links, drastically reduce the space your game will use. You essentially set up warcraft like this:

Main (Full) Install of Warcraft.
----- Sym Link A
----- Sym Link B
----- Sym Link C
----- Sym Link D
----- Sym Link E
----- Sym Link F

Your main install, is not used to play with.
You will use this to patch with, on patch days.

The A-E, will be versions of warcraft, with most options turned down.
The F option (assuming you five box, F is the sixth version) might have every option turned up a fair bit, and used for when you one-box.

You'll start with the full warcraft install.
Then create folders for your sub folders.
I named mine wow-A, wow-B, wow-C... etc.
Once you have copy folders, go into the full wow install.
Edit, Select All, then Control Click (de-select) the Cache, Data, and Interface folders.
Then paste this (everything else) in your wow-A, wow-B folders.

Now you need to SymLink from the full install to each of the copies.
A symbolic link, is a pointer, which basically says use the version found elsewhere.
So, you have several copies of wow, which all use the Cache, Data, and Interface folders of the full copy.
Each of the copies has its own WFT folder (which is your settings).
But these folders are maybe 10-20mb in size, not 10-15gb like wow.

There is a command to create Symbolic Links/Junction Points.
I used this utility, it requires something from the microsoft site to work, linked at the bottom of the page.
It was virus free when I used it, but it would be a good idea to scan anything you download.

Link Shell Extension





Important Note.

If you go with SymLinks, you need to break the links on patch day.
Then you patch the parent/full install of the game.
And then remake your links after the patch.
Then copy the wow.exe file, from the patched folder to each of your copies.

If you don't break the links, you'll be fine quite often.
But sometimes, there's an error and you'll not be able to run warcraft.
You'll get an error about the version is already updated, so it won't patch.
But, it won't run because its an older version that needs to be patched.

When this occurs, the repair utility can help you sometimes.
But 9 in 10 times, the only solution is to unistall and reinstall warcraft.
Which plain sucks.
So, its easier to break the links, patch and remake the links.
Takes a few minutes.